


Numbers

by OopsIShipTheThingArchive



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-07
Updated: 2014-12-07
Packaged: 2018-02-28 12:03:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2731790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OopsIShipTheThingArchive/pseuds/OopsIShipTheThingArchive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where everyone has a clock on their wrist that counts down the seconds until they meet their Soulmate, Tadashi and Hiro have both been zeroed since they were children.  Which means there's no way to guess who their Soulmates are…right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Numbers

**Author's Note:**

> A couple notes:  
> I've seen a post on tumblr a few times with this AU where people's numbers count down to when they meet their soulmate, and I'd written a couple soulmark type fics before but never this one specifically.  
> I imagine that one's Numbers are a private thing, not something discussed in front of casual acquaintances, and politeness dictates that one wears an armband of some kind over them. Aside from creating some interesting tan lines, this also means that a lot of children meet their Soulmate without realizing it, because they weren't watching for that exact moment to happen. I'm thinking that actually showing someone your Numbers is kinda on par with showing off a nipple piercing--it probably wouldn't get you arrested but it would certainly make everyone around you uncomfortable.

The group working in Callaghan’s lab was unusually close by many standards, and one of the things that sometimes got them weird looks from family members is that every single one of them knows the others’ Numbers.  Aunt Cass had almost had a fit the first time Tadashi commented on it offhandedly, while Hiro sat up and looked intrigued.  Cass shut that conversation down immediately, ranting about it being highly inappropriate for children and why does Tadashi even know these things anyway??

It was later that night that Hiro padded around the divider between their beds and sat at the foot of Tadashi’s, waiting for him to explain.  Tadashi sighed.

“We spend like nine hours together every day, of course it comes up,” he muttered.  “I still don’t know why everyone gets so freaked out. It’s not like we’re—“ he cut off what he was about to say and cleared his throat awkwardly before he explained.

Wasabi was actually the normal one of the group.  His Numbers have counted down steadily since he was born, ticking on to a point about three years in the future when he would meet his Soulmate.

Honey Lemon and GoGo’s Numbers hit zero at the exact same point—the moment Tadashi had introduced them. Neither girl was entirely sure what to make of it still, but Tadashi said his favorite thing was watching them together, bent over one of GoGo’s bikes or Honey’s chemical vats, heads together as they discussed their work.

Fred was even more unusual than Tadashi. He was that singularity that everyone knew happened but no one talked about.  He had no Numbers at all.  Tadashi theorized that it was because he was more into fire-breathing lizards than anything (or anyone) else.

And then of course there was Tadashi. He pulled off the armband he wore over them to stare at the numbers on his wrist.  00:00:00.  Just like it had been for as long as he could remember.  Hiro laid down his own thin arm next to his brother’s. They were exactly the same, a glowingly vibrant purple hue.  And his were just as static as Tadashi’s.

“Sometimes I wish we could be normal,” Hiro muttered.

Tadashi ruffled his hair. “We are normal. We’ll figure it out eventually. You’ll see.”

Tadashi’s numbers had run down when he was a toddler.  His parents had told him that they didn’t know who it was that he’d met at that exact magical moment.  It was probably someone in one of his preschool classes or a daycare group, another child he’d run into on the playground and hadn’t met again.  It happened sometimes, when Soulmates met too young. They lost track of each other and never made it back together.

And Hiro—Hiro had been at zero since he was born.  It could have been anyone in the hospital, from the doctors and nurses attending his birth (“Ew Tadashi that’s gross my Soulmate isn’t _old_!”) to another baby in the hospital nursery.  And he was perhaps less likely to find them than Tadashi was.

In some ways living knowing that his Soulmate was out there and he’d met them but lost them again was hard. Sometimes Tadashi thought it would have been nicer to be like Fred, to know that he was whole in himself and not sharing a piece of his soul with someone else.  But then, Tadashi had never actually felt like he was missing anything, unlike the other people he’d spoken to who hadn’t found their Soulmates.

Of course the only person he’d ever told this to was Hiro, and then only at four in the morning when they were both a little tipsy on a night of video games and soda, and he had been startled when Hiro flopped backward on the couch with a huff and a “I know, _right_?  The ER docs always _apologize_ to me when they ask where my Soulmate is and I say I don’t know. Why would I care? It’s not like I need anyone else in my life.”

“Yeah, no one else could keep up with your genius brain, right?” Tadashi threw a handful of popcorn at him, and Hiro shrieked.

“No, but they wouldn’t throw snack food at me either!” he retorted, scooping up the kernels he could reach and flinging them back at his brother.

Tadashi dodged and kicked out his socked feet to pin Hiro to the couch, tickling him with his toes and waving them in front of his face.  “And I bet they wouldn’t do this.  Smell them!” Hiro screeched and shoved at his ankles, and Aunt Cass wandered sleepy-eyed out of her bedroom to lay down a permanent ban on living-room-camping.

It was when Tadashi brought Hiro in to the Nerd Lab for the first time that the balance shifted. Not that the Hamadas were the ones who noticed it.  Tadashi was shadowing Hiro as he wandered among the various inventions, a tiny smile on his face as he watched his brother’s excitement.  He didn’t notice GoGo coming up behind him until she spoke right behind his shoulder.

“Well, the kid’s cute Tadashi, but isn’t he a bit young?”

“What?”  Tadashi looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. “You know he’s fourteen. What does that have to do with anything?”

She stared at him meditatively and popped her gum.  “Nothing. How old were you when you zeroed again?”

“Almost five,” Tadashi answered, becoming more confused by the second.  “What does that have to do with Hiro?”

“Nothing.”

And she wandered off to whisper conspiratorially with Honey.  Tadashi stared after her, but now Hiro had seen everything else he could finally show his brother what he’d been working on.  He pulled Hiro away from the group and led him into his lab.

***

The next day Honey stopped by the Hamadas’ garage lab, ostensibly to help Hiro figure out what he wanted to do for the showcase, but in reality it was to talk to Tadashi.

“So what do you know about Hiro’s Numbers, Tadashi?” she asked nonchalantly as they watched Hiro whiz around the room on his chair, ricocheting from the computer monitor to the printer and back again.  Tadashi choked.

“ _What?_ Honey, you know I can’t—“

“Just wondering if he had the same thing you do.  You know, zeroing so young and all.”

Tadashi just stared at her, scandalized, until she threw her hands up and meandered over to talk to Hiro.

***

The next day the entire Nerd Lab (as they’d taken to calling themselves after Hiro’s visit) came by to see Hiro’s project, since he’d finally come up with an idea.  They gathered around the beat up old couch, marveling at the tiny bot Hiro held up for them and discussing ideas for how exactly he could develop the neurotransmitter that controlled them.  Tadashi hovered on the fringes, having already made his suggestions the night before, until Fred turned to him.  “Hey, Tadashi, you should get us some sodas or something from the café.”

“Sure,” he heaved himself off the arm of the couch and left the garage, not noticing the way the other four clustered tighter around Hiro as soon as he was out of earshot.

He certainly noticed the way they all looked at him when he returned, especially Hiro. He didn’t know his brother’s eyes could _get_ that wide, and there was a flush high in his cheeks that Tadashi had never seen before.

“What’s going on with you?” he asked, setting down the six drinks he was carrying and looking to each of his friends in turn.

“Nothing!” Hiro said, perhaps too quickly.  “They were just leaving. I have a lot of work to do on my neurotransmitter and everything so we’ll see you guys tomorrow bye!”

Honey slipped past Tadashi, looking guilty.  Wasabi also avoided his gaze.  GoGo’s expression was unreadable as usual, and Fred stopped to lay a gentle hand on Hiro’s shoulder before he left, murmuring “Sorry, little man.”

Tadashi watched them leave one by one, growing more and more confused by the second.  “What was that about?”

Hiro kept his eyes down as he padded lightly around him to the bench that held Megabot and his tools and selecting a tiny screwdriver.  “It’s…well…they wanted…um,” he trailed off, gestured helplessly with the screwdriver, then set to work fiddling with something on his microbot.

Tadashi stared at him, watching the back of Hiro’s neck and ears redden under his gaze before the boy finally looked up to scowl at him.  “You know you can’t lie to me, Hiro.”

“They had a theory about our Numbers,” he muttered, voice tiny.

Tadashi growled. “They didn’t say anything inappropriate to you, did they?”

“No, of course not.” Hiro heaved a sigh and set down the bot, finally focusing his full attention on his brother. “They had a theory about why ours are both zeroed.  And Tadashi, a lot of what they had to say made sense.”

Next thing Tadashi knew Hiro had stood and grabbed his wrist, tugging at the band that covered his steady zero count.  “Hiro, what’re you doing! Not _here!_ ” he hissed, backing up until his knees hit the edge of the couch and he fell onto it with a huff.  Hiro stood with his cover and a small hiss of triumph, dropped the piece of fabric on the floor and grasped Tadashi’s arm again with both hands.  “ _Hiro_! Stop it!”  Tadashi tried to tug away, and nearly lifted Hiro right off the floor.

Hiro just pushed up onto the couch, kneeling with a leg on either side of Tadashi’s hips, so that Tadashi couldn’t pull his arm out of his reach or dislodge him without knocking the younger boy to the floor.  “Tadashi, look at this,” he breathed, twisting Tadashi’s wrist around to point at his Numbers, then finally releasing him in order to tug at his own cover.  Tadashi flushed, feeling as uncomfortable as if Hiro had just started undressing in front of him, but he let Hiro grab his arm again and compare their marks side by side.

“They do match.” Hiro whispered into the silence, breath light and shallow.

“What?”  Tadashi looked closer.  “We already knew they were the same color.  So?  I bet a lot of people have Numbers that are almost the same color, especially in families.”

But Hiro was shaking his head. “You know that colors only match exactly when it’s—“ he couldn’t say it and trailed off.

Tadashi pulled his arm back and looked up at him.  “I don’t…you can’t be saying what I think you’re saying.”

“It makes _sense_ , Tadashi,” Hiro hissed, the blush spreading across his cheeks again as he stared down his brother.  “It makes sense.  You zeroed right about the same time I was born, right?”

Tadashi nodded hesitantly, not liking where this was going.  “And I’ve been at zero since then.  _Think_ about it,” Hiro snapped. “Don’t just shut down on me. If you and I had both zeroed the first time you held me, do you think our parents would have told you? Or Aunt Cass?  They would have kept it a secret.  And told you that your Soulmate must be some random kid from your preschool.”

Tadashi opened his mouth, realized he had no argument to make, and shut it again.  Hiro waited for him to subside before he continued. “And remember what we talked about that one night?  How everyone always says that not having your Soulmate with you is like missing a part of yourself and we never felt like that?  It’s because we’re—“

“No!” Tadashi interrupted him. He couldn’t think of anything else, and knew he couldn’t actually refute anything Hiro was saying. Hiro glared, but at least didn’t tell him that if he couldn’t make a clearer argument then he wouldn’t listen. Not that he needed to, Tadashi could read it on his face plain as day.

“Are you done?” Hiro asked, and Tadashi scowled at him.

“No I’m not done! I don’t know how you could be seriously considering this!”  He arched up, trying to push Hiro off, but the younger settled his weight down over Tadashi’s hipbones so even if he stood up Hiro could just continue to cling to him like a monkey.

“Tadashi, cut it out! It’s not just what GoGo and Honey had to say,” Hiro insisted, leaning forward to press their foreheads together. “I’d thought about this a lot. I think they’re right.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, as if he couldn’t stand to look at his brother as he said this. “I hate it when we can’t spend time together.  When you started pulling all-nighters at the lab and spending all your time at school it _hurt_.  I don’t depend on you _that_ much, Tadashi, I shouldn’t have felt so…lost.  I knew there was something more going on, I just hadn’t figured out what yet.  Then GoGo told me that when you first brought me into the lab that just for a second they thought you must have finally found your Soulmate, just from the way you looked at me. It surprised all of them when you introduced me as your brother.”

“I didn’t realize…I didn’t think…” Tadashi was babbling, making connections he didn’t even mean to make. He’d always felt sick after staying up all night at school working on Baymax.  He’d always had to resist the urge to collapse onto Hiro’s bed and curl up around him when he got home at five or six in the morning. He’d told himself it was because Hiro’s bed was closest and he was exhausted from spending almost 24 hours awake but what if it wasn’t?  What if it was Hiro himself that presented such an irresistible draw?

Tadashi shook his head, trying to drive out the thoughts but it was too late.  He had to remember how happy he always was whenever he was with his brother. Even on the rare occasions that they fought it was always better than being alone.  And he felt lonely at the lab, even though the rest of the group was almost always around, and even when he stayed all night there was usually someone there with him.

He met Hiro’s gaze, and saw his own confusion and fear mirrored back at him there.  And maybe—maybe he was imagining things—just a hint of hope. Hiro swallowed, an audible click in the silence around them, before his head tilted and he leaned in a bit. He stopped with barely half an inch separating their mouths, and Tadashi thought his heart might pound right out of his chest as Hiro let out a shivery little breath against his lips. He realized Hiro was waiting for him to move, waiting for him to be the one to take that final step, cross that final line.

And oh heaven help him he _wanted_ to. Whatever this was it felt right, and good, and _wait a moment he was going to kiss his little brother._   The thought made him feel a little bit sick but the thought of stopping this, of denying it made him feel worse.  With a helpless little groan he leaned forward and captured Hiro’s lips with his own.

Any lingering doubts he’d had were dispelled in that split second.  Hiro relaxed into his arms, his muscles trembling as the tension bled out of them.  Tadashi’s arms came up to wrap around Hiro’s body and pull him closer, and both of them were tilting their heads more to deepen the kiss and they were both sloppy and inexperienced and _perfect._

Tadashi couldn’t have said how long it lasted, but long enough that he could barely breathe when Hiro finally pulled away.  The younger’s face was flushed and his eyes dark as he panted, before he folded forward to curl into Tadashi’s lap, tucking his head under his brother’s chin with a sigh.

“I think that means I’m right,” he murmured into Tadashi’s collarbone, and the elder couldn’t contain a small snort of laughter.

“Know it all,” he poked Hiro’s side and laughed when Hiro weakly swatted at him.

“’Love you,” Hiro muttered, and Tadashi wanted to pull him up and into another electrifying kiss. He didn’t.  Both of them had a lot of thinking to do about this, but for now—

“I love you too, Hiro,” he whispered, and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.  They’d figure it out eventually.  Soulmates always did, after all.

 

**Author's Note:**

>  ~~AND THEN TADASHI DIES IN THE FIRE AND HIRO FINDS OUT WHAT IT'S REALLY LIKE TO LIVE WITHOUT HIS SOULMATE WAHAHAHA~~ nah I wouldn't write that, too depressing.


End file.
